The Race
The Race was a reptilian alien/creature species that invaded Earth in 1942. Due to their reptilian-like appearance, they came to be called "Lizards" by humans. They came from a planet that orbits Tau Ceti called Home. Prior to their arrival on Earth, they had conquered two other planets, Rabotev 2 around 12058 BC, and Halless 1 around 3058 BC. Characteristics ' '''Biology ' The Race is reptilian, with a bone structure that differs slightly from that of humans in which their wrist bones pivot off one bone rather than two, and their ribcages are resemble "latticework". Their lifespans tend to be longer than humans. Unlike Earth reptiles, they are warm blooded, having a body temperature slightly higher then that of humans, although they have very great difficulty operating in cold environments (like Northern Russia or Europe in winter), and rejected at least one possible new colony because the world was even colder than Earth. The Race have claws on their fingers and toes capable of acting as weapons. They also have very sharp teeth and what is referred to as a "tail stump", which is probably the atrophied remains of a tail lost during evolution, (despite this most illustrations show members of the race with tails). They have no tear ducts; crying in either sadness or otherwise was completely unheard of to the Race prior to its encounters with humans. They have a revulsion to eating eggs, due to the similarities to their own life cycle. Ginger has a narcotic affect on both males and females of the Race, and as stated below, disrupts females' sexual cycles. Members of the Race can also become intoxicated from alcohol. 'Reproduction ' Members of the Race are seasonal breeders. They are sexually inactive for all but a few weeks of the year, at which point the females become fertile and emit pheromones which drive the males into a state of arousal strong enough to overcome all other priorities. Enraged males often fight over females. These fights are sometimes fatal. When females consume ginger, their hormonal cycles are disrupted and they become fertile and emit pheromones immediately. After sex, females gestate their fertilized eggs for several weeks. After laying them in a suitable nesting spot, they abandon them. The hatchlings receive no parental care from either parent much akin to characteristics of certain species of animals on Earth. Race Hatchlings are born with an egg tooth, and are essentially miniature versions of the adults. When hatchlings emerge, they do so with their motor skills fully developed but they are highly anti-social: Race hatchlings instinctively avoid anything larger than themselves. At the age of 3 months, Race hatchlings become predatory in nature and have to be taught not to attack their own kind. Due to their considerably greater physiological development and self reliance at birth, cases of surviving feral children are much more common in the history of the Race than in that of humans. 'Homeworld ' '''Home is the native planet of the Race, the second planet in orbit around Tau Ceti. Home is a hot, arid world containing only a few large bodies of water, so that maritime navigation is mostly a curiosity. The first male of the Race to circumnavigate the planet, Sherran, did so using overland routes. Precipitation is rare compared to most of Earth's climate, and snow is all but unheard of anywhere but the polar regions. In the spring and summer, the South Pole is chilly by the Race's standards but not uncomfortably so, and is a popular tourist destination. Home's geography does not offer too many pronounced borders such as wide rivers or high mountain ranges. This is one possible reason for the Race's slow cultural development: the absence of natural borders prevented the formation of durable competing not-empires, which did not lead to arms races. Home has given rise to mostly reptilian animal life, with the Race, of course, at the top of its philogenies. The beffel, the tsiongi, the eppori, the azwaca, and the zisuili are among Home's other animals. There are only a few species of flying animals, and these too are reptilian; their wings are leathery. All are like the Race in that they have an intense mating season brought on by emission of pheromones by fertile females a few weeks each spring, and are sexually inactive the rest of the year. Home completes its orbit around Tau Ceti in only half the time that Earth orbits its sun. Thus, when the Race speaks of a two-year period, only one year has passed on Earth. A day on Home lasts 25¼ hours measured locally in tenths. Home has been politically unified for one hundred thousand of its years. Before that time, it was divided into competing empires. The empire ruled by the Ssumaz dynasty (centered in Preffilo) became dominant, overran all the others in conquests which set the pattern for those later undertaken on Rabotev 2 and Halless 1 and that attempted on Tosev 3. This unification marks the division between the Race's ancient and modern histories, though even in its ancient history the Race was technologically advanced. The Race's military technology, tactics and strategy remeined essentially frozen at the stage where it was during the Unification of Home, with no military threat to give incentive for further developments. In addition to the Race, a number of Rabotevs and Hallessi inhabit Home. The majority of these are descended from talented students who came to Home to receive a superior education to that which was available on their homeworlds. Home was visited by Tosevites in the Earth year 2031 travelling aboard the [http://turtledove.wikia.com/wiki/Admiral_Peary Admiral Peary], an American starship comparable to those of Home's Conquest Fleet and Colonization Fleet but slightly slower. This ship's primary mission was to set up an embassy. Originally the ambassador was to be Dr. Henry Kissinger, but he failed to recover from cold sleep and ambassadorial duties fell to Sam Yeager. Yeager was assisted by his son, Jonathan Yeager; his daughter-in-law, Karen Yeager; ecologist Tom de la Rosa and his wife, Linda; and US Army Major Frank Coffey. During their stay, the Emperor's government arranged tours of areas all over Home for the humans. The Admiral Peary was later joined by the FTL starship [http://turtledove.wikia.com/wiki/Commodore_Perry Commodore Perry]. This marked the first military threat to Ssumaz hegemony on Home in the Race's modern history. Culture '[http://turtledove.wikia.com/index.php?title=The_Race&action=edit&section=5 '{C}]' ' In Race culture and society, the Race are entirely ethnocentric. The Race holds their own language in high esteem and usually think little of human languages. They see change (including minor innovations, such as new kinds of entertainment) as something inherently bad, believing that change would inevitably destabilize Race society, and are thus extremely conservative. They are technologically advanced, but embrace technological progress only at a glacial pace. In Race research, every scientific discovery must be based on scientific fact, not "imagination" or "stories". Race hierarchy is shown through body paint, which takes a role similar to that of badges and clothing in human society. The more complex one's body painting, the higher you are in the hierarchy. Due to their biology, the Race has certain slang terms that while similar to human ones are also uniquely race, for instance, someone in serious trouble is going to "Regret the day he was hatched"; when threatening somebody with endless imprisonment, police would say "We will lock you up and eat the key". The Race appear to expand to gain space for themselves. Historically, the Race has sought to conquer relatively close and populated worlds. The Race's technological conservatism means that after they developed their versions of Relativity theory they did not consider the possibility that there might be ways around it. In the 2030s, for example, they were shocked to learn that humanity had discovered a way to travel faster than light, and they were forced to begin a crash program to catch up. Assuming the Race could not steal the technology, they estimated it would take at least 70 years to catch up with the humans. This will likely force seismic shifts in their culture as the Race fights to survive against the more advanced humans. Also the Race are extremely "moral" and consider sexual intercourse with great disdain, and consider the unheard concept of love as "perverted". And because there is no biological impetus to care for one's hatchlings, and because sexual encounters are undertaken so casually when they occur and ignored for the rest of the year, the Race does not have a family structure, an alien concept to the Race. The only exception is the Emperor, who is guaranteed to be a son of his predecessor because emperors keep a personal harem whose members mate exclusively with him. However the Race colonists that arrived and lived on Earth, after being exposed to ginger which affected their sexual biology, slowly accepted the custom of marriage or "exclusive mating arrangements"; this became the basis of family units. Despite their lack of family sentiment (which is one reason why tensions tend to run high between generations) adult members of the Race are not antisocial. Indeed, friendship is the most important relationship that the Race culture recognizes. Government[http://turtledove.wikia.com/index.php?title=The_Race&action=edit&section=6 {C}]' ' The Race has been ruled by the Ssumaz dynasty for more than 50,000 years. However, individuals of the Race have a great degree of personal freedom, as do their subjects, as long as they do not conflict with the Race Empire's policies. Due to distance between Home and its colonies, the Emperor's power devolves to the government of the colonies. The parts of Earth captured by the race were ruled by Atvar until the 1970s. Imperialism ''' The Race believe in imposing their culture on planets they annex. While not actually racist in the traditional sense (of actually hating others races/species), the Race is capable of chauvinism. They apparently teach their subjects the superiority of the Race culture, and encourage their vanquished subjects to be "grateful" that the Race stopped wars and infighting (at least in the case of the Rabotev's). Also the discovery of the biology of the two discovered species, the Rabotev and the Hallessi to be so similar to the Race gave the Race reason to believe that its biology was universal, and so another justification of the conquest and annexation of other planets. However, with the discovery of Earth, the Race's ideology was proven wrong. '''Religion[http://turtledove.wikia.com/index.php?title=The_Race&action=edit&section=8 {C}]' ' The Emperor is elevated to a god-like status in Race society. Members of The Race are taught at birth to lower their eyes in reverence at any evocation of the Emperor in conversation. The Emperor's birthday (known to The Race as "Hatching Day") is celebrated once every 6 months (a year for The Race). The Race afterlife consists of eternal servitude to past Emperors. Emperor worship is so deeply ingrained into Race culture that the concept of "impericide" is virtually unthinkable. The Race on Earth view and regarded human religions as "superstitions", in which many of the dogmatic humans (including Christians, Muslims, and Jews) were hastily offended by their behavior, such as in the Race's perception of God as a "giant Big Ugly" as absolutely ridiculous, and especially when the Race started taxing "superstitions" in Race-held territories. Their derisiveness of human religions result in heavy riots and discord in Race-territories, particularly in the Middle East. Subject worlds and races[http://turtledove.wikia.com/index.php?title=The_Race&action=edit&section=9 {C}]' ' As well as their own homeworld, the Race has two subject planets; Epsilon Eridani and Epsilon Indi (known as Rabotev 2 and Halless 1 to the Race). Both planets' indigenous dominant lifeforms, the Rabotevs and the Hallessi, are similar to the Race in biology as well as evolutionary pace. Little is revealed of their history before their subjugation to the Empire, other than that the Hallessi had an identical form of government, while the Rabotevs were divided among competing mini-empires. At least one of these races practiced slavery, though it is unspecified which. The Rabotevs and Hallessi species are allowed to have a "equal" status as the Race, such as earning an education, but are nonetheless restricted from certain roles in the Race empire. Most notably, conquered subjects are not allowed in the Race military for alleged security reasons, suggesting the possibility that the Race doesn't fully trust their alien subjects even after thousands of years as citizens of the Empire. Both species are allowed on all planets in the Empire besides Earth, possibly because the Race wished to integrate as a fully Race planet first. Presumably, the Race concedes the possibility that the two conquered species are not entirely content with the Race. Rabotevs are a sentient species native to Rabotev 2. The Rabotevs are biologically similar to the Race. They also share the Race's predisposition to slow cultural development, and their culture was primitive when a Conquest Fleet commanded by Pssufalu the Conqueror arrived on their world millennia ago. They were easily conquered by the Race, and the similarities between the two species led to the Rabotevs being fully integrated into the Race's Empire. The first alien species encountered by the Race, the similarities between the two led the Race to assume their biological and cultural traits were universal. This assumption was further strengthened when the Hallessi also fit the mold, but was invalidated by the Tosevites. The Hallessi are a sentient species native to Halless 1. The Hallessi are biologically similar to the Race. They also share the Race's predisposition to slow cultural development, and their culture was primitive when a Conquest Fleet arrived on their world millennia ago. They were easily conquered by the Race, and the similarities between the two species led to the Hallessi being fully integrated into the Race's Empire. According to Atvar, Hallessi seem to have a genetic predisposition to being late for appointments. When the American diplomatic delegation arrived at Home aboard the [http://turtledove.wikia.com/wiki/Admiral_Peary Admiral Peary], some members of the Race confused the Tosevites with Hallessi. Tosevite is the formal name for humans in the language of the Race. Its root is the word "Tosev", their name for the Sun. (They also refer to humans by the slang term Big Uglies.) Tosevites are unique among the galaxy's four known sentient species in a number of ways. They are not reptilian but mammalian; mammals are unheard of on Home, Rabotev 2, and Halless 1. They are born and are not hatched from eggs. They are sexually active all year round. They form permanent family groups and keep track of consanguinity, even allowing familial roles to surpass the role of friendship in cultural importance. Their cultures develop very quickly, and they are comfortable with noticeable technological progress within a period of just a few years. Most importantly, they were able to resist conquest by the Race, and may even manage to conquer the Race itself some day. They are also the only alien species ever to visit Home in starships of their own making. Military ' The military system of the Race is strictly hierarchical, and the overall majority of the Race military is traditionally composed of the Race species only, mostly due to ensuring the security the Race empire. However, despite having a technological power military, the Race is more a peaceful species given to the fact that only two battles were ever known to have fought in their military history, which were the conquest of Rabotev 2 and Halless 1, and which also only happen thousands of years ago before the invasion of Earth and that only very few Race casualties were affected by their easy conquests. Furthermore, much of their knowledge of military techniques and tactics in their military history was completely forgotten, including the practice of brutal interrogation (being replaced by "truth" serums) and possibly poison gas warfare. The Race's lack of military experience leaves its military in following planetary conquest procedures according to mere manual/guide books and unrealistic virtual training-simulators in which all proves nearly useless in the conquest of Earth. '"Fleetlord" was the title given to head of the Race's space-fleets. Atvar held the position fleetlord of the Conquest Fleet until the 1970s. Highest ranking officer of the Race, equivalent to an Admiral of the Fleet. One is charged with commanding the conquest fleet, and the other in charge of the colonization fleet. Military Units ''' The '''Conquest Fleet, commanded by Fleetlord Atvar, was the Race's main military formation and the unit which attempted to conquer Tosev 3 in the 1940s. The males (the Conquest Fleet was all-male, one of the only incidents of gender discrimination in the Race's culture) of the Conquest Fleet were the first members of the Race to encounter the culture shock the planet offered them. They fought a costly war against the major Tosevite not-empires which ended in an uneasy truce. Ginger abuse became widespread throughout the Conquest Fleet, and the Conquest Fleet's members introduced the drug to civilians from the Colonization Fleet when that fleet arrived twenty Tosevite years later. Those members of the Race who had not endured the Conquest Fleet's experiences found these males "addled," irrevocably damaged by their exposure to the degenerate culture of Tosev 3. They were also widely blamed for the Race's failure to conquer the entire planet. In the Race's history, two other Conquest Fleets had been dispatched, one to Rabotev 2, commanded by Fleetlord Pssufalu the Conqueror, and one to Halless 1, commanded by Fleetlord Hisstan the Conqueror. Unlike the Tosevite fleet, both of these easily completed their missions to conquer their respective planets The Colonization Fleet was a civilian fleet of the Race dispatched from Home to establish a permanent presence on Tosev 3 following the expected easy conquest of that planet by the Conquest Fleet. On its arrival, however, the fleet, commanded by Fleetlord Reffet, found a situation very different from what it had expected. The colonists (who included the first females of the Race to live on the planet) found it very difficult to adapt to these circumstances, which included military threats from sovereign Tosevite not-empires as well as economic competition from the same mentioned species; frequent revolts by Tosevites living within the Race's territory; and the many social disruptions associated with ginger, the use of which quickly became widespread among the colonists. As soon as they arrived, twelve starships were destroyed by a nuclear attack by an unknown Tosevite power. This power was eventually identified as the United States, which was forced to accept the destruction of Indianapolis as punishment. Two other Colonization Fleets had been dispatched at earlier points in the Race's history, to Rabotev 2 and Halless 1 after each of those planets' conquests. Both were somewhat more successful than the Tosev 3 fleet. It was said to have transported "eighty to one hundred million" Race settlers from Home to the Race's territory on Tosev 3. Technology ''' Despite interstellar travel, cryogenics, and various other technological advances (like tectonic plate manipulation) which are far beyond even our present level, although some advancements our close to the present day technology, The Race is often considered to have military technology similar to that of the 1990s. Landcruisers are tanks and killercrafts are supersonic aircraft (the latter were particularly deadly in the first day of the war). The Race's war technology did not change, even while on Earth. By the 1960s, human military technology was nearing parity on the ground, and beginning to make an impact in space. By the 2030s, the Race was badly outmatched and searching for a way to escape the disaster they found themselves in. The Race's military technology had frozen a hundred thousand years before, when Home was politically unified and warfare ended. Subsequently the Race chose to reuse its old war machines only for conquest of other planets, and since these presented no military challenge, the Race's war technology stopped advancing. Under their unified government, the Race progressed extremely slowly, both technologically and socially. Upon invading Earth, they were amazed by humanity's rapid progress over a few hundred years. As a result, they were unprepared for the tenacity and skill that humans used in defending their respective territories -- and the quick victory they expected did not come to pass. Although the Race was able to conquer the Southern Hemisphere of Earth in the initial invasion, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Germany remained Earth's greatest free powers once they developed and deployed atomic weapons. Canada, Britain, and Japan also retained their independence, although the Race did not have full diplomatic relations with them. The Race had previously conquered two other species, the Rabotevs and the Hallessi. These were extremely similar to the Race biologically, though ginger was not narcotic to them. The social differences between the three species were also very slight, although the two cultures in question were much more primitive than the Race when their planets were conquered. As of the 2030s, the Race's technology had fallen behind that of humans, and with the human discovery of FTL, the Race was being forced to catch up. Various theories have been advanced as to why the Race progresses more slowly than humanity. One is that the lack of large bodies of water on the Race's homeworld meant that all empires (before the unification of Home) were land-based, and so lacked the rapid expansion that sea-empires could create. Another theory is based on the fact that the Race does not have sexual selection, as they breed only in periodic orgies where the patriarchial line cannot be known (except for the Emperor). The Race are therefore not motivated by their sex drive, at least not in the same way humans are, and perhaps this lack of sex drive is related to their lack of innovation. '''Killercraft were the Race's fighter aircraft, comparable to, but far more advanced than, the jet technology being developed in the aborted World War II. The Race's killercraft were extremely effective in securing dominance over the skies. In the early days of the war, the Killercraft were able to totally destroy most a human air force at every engagement. One missile could go 10 times faster than the best human fighter. However, the Race had anticipated an easy victory. There were not enough killercraft to sustain the war. Also the Race's tactics of using killercraft are poorly in comparison to actual aerial combat, given to the fact that the Race has only two known battles in their thousand year-long history. Killercraft pilots were chosen for their aggressiveness. The craft themselves had an 18 missile capacity and were equipped with radar controlled cannons. They were also shielded from EMP, painted with camouflage, and specially modified to be capable of extremely high altitudes so that they could be picked up by orbiting ships in the absence of available airstrips on the ground. Landcruisers were the Race Conquest Fleet's equivalent of the tank. They were particularly deadly machines, equipped with 4 or 5 inch guns with an auto loader and composite armor, requiring humans to spend enormous numbers of their own tanks and manpower to tackle just one landcruiser. However, the Race's landcruiser-tactics were stagnant compared with human tank tactics. By the 1960s, human tanks became absolute equals to landcruisers. This was demonstrated in the Race-German War of 1965 when German tanks proved capable of fighting Lizard landcruisers on a one-on-one basis, whereas twenty years earlier the Race had maintained a 5:1 kill ratio in armored combat. Troopcarriers were a vehicle the Race's Conquest Fleet used. They did not have kill ratio of the Landcruiser. Their little turrets could have be seen to point them out. Cold sleep is a medically-induced state of suspended animation used for interstellar travellers. It allows them to travel between stars for many years without aging during their journey. It was also sometimes used to keep older individuals alive until an anticipated future event in which their talents would be needed. The medicines used to induce cold sleep are species-specific: The Race, which developed the practice, also created the drugs used to put Rabotevs and Hallessi into cold sleep. Humans developed their own drugs in the late 1970s. Within the first two decades of the invention of human drugs, rapid progress was made in the effectiveness and especially in the safety of the drugs. Nevertheless, they were never perfected, and several human patients failed to recover, including Henry Kissinger. In contrasting this to their own cautious centuries-long development of the other three versions of cold sleep, the Race considered this margin of error an unacceptble risk. Nevertheless, they agreed to use these drugs on Kassquit, a Tosevite citizen of the Empire, when she asked to allowed to travel Home. Being put under the human drugs was an experience akin to a continued slowing of the mental faculties. When recovery was successful, the patient was disoriented on emerging. Human medics made these patients unfasten straps on their own gurnies before getting up as a sign that they had regained function. Atomic bombs were the weapons which held the key to war begun when the Race invaded Earth. At the outset of the conflict, only the Race possesses them, and first detonated several high in the Earth's atmosphere in an effort to disrupt Tosevites' radio signals. Atvar also used them to destroy the cities of Berlin and Washington, DC early in the war. Unbeknownst to the Conquest Fleet when it arrived, humans had already discovered the divisibility of the atom and the tremendous energy yield it could produce. Most of the major combatants in the interrupted World War II had begun programs to build such weapons. The Soviet Union struck first when they built a bomb using uranium captured in the destruction of one of the Race's starships. They buried this bomb under a stretch of line they controlled, then withdrew. When the Race took possession of this area, they detonated the bomb via radio. Since the Race enjoyed air supremacy, this became the humans' preferred tactic for delivering the bomb. It was used by both the United States and Germany when each of those countries developed bombs entirely of their own manufacture. By the end of the war, the US, the USSR, and Germany had all learned to build atomic bombs on their own. Though reluctant to risk rendering the planet uninhabitable, Atvar retaliated to each human bomb by destroying a city in any nation that used such a weapon, each time it did so. He also destroyed Tokyo, thus precluding the Japanese from building a bomb before the end of the war (though they did succeed in building one many years later, after the arrival of the Colonization Fleet.) The Race also destroyed Sydney and Melbourne in Australia with atomic weapons to break the back of the Australian resistance. These tactics did not deter the atomic-capable human governments, which were engaged in a war for survival. Eventually Atvar was forced to negotiate with these governments, creating the uneasy truce which would exist on Earth for decades to come. After the peace conference, German SS commando Otto Skorzeny smuggled an atomic bomb into the now Race-controlled Polish city of Lodz. His intent was to detonate the bomb and disrupt the newfound, fragile peace. He was prevented from doing so by Russian pilot Ludmila Gorbunova; Jewish militia leader Mordechai Anielewicz; and Panzer colonel Heinrich Jäger, an old comrade of Skorzeny's from many a mission against the Race. Anielewicz's militia took possession of the bomb and continued to control it, with the tacit approval of the Race, for twenty years, despite serious doubts about the continued serviceability of the bomb in the absence of technical maintenence. Eventually the bomb came into the possession of renegade Jewish fundamentalists who smuggled it into Germany with the intent of detonating it as punishment for Germany's genocide of the Jews. Anielewicz commanded a joint task force of Germans and Lizards and appeared to convince the renegades to yield, but in fact the renegades had tried to detonate the bomb and found that it was not in working condition. In the next twenty years, human atomic weapons improved. Most importantly, they were coupled with rocket technology to create nuclear missiles, allowing the human powers to use these weapons against the Race's orbital starships. These weapons were used many times both on land and in space in the 1960s: by the United States in Earl Warren's attack on the Colonization Fleet; by the Race in its retaliatory attack on Indianapolis; and by both sides in the Race's 1960s war with Germany. They were even carried aboard the [http://turtledove.wikia.com/wiki/Admiral_Peary Admiral Peary] when it journeyed to the Tau Ceti system. Literary Note {C} In practice, having the Race's technology on the level described above was a necessary precondition for Turtledove's basic premise for this series - i.e. to have extraterrestrials invade Earth in 1942 and to let WWII transform into humanity's war with aliens. Assuming that this takes place in a universe indetical with ours until 1942, i.e. with no intelligent life other than mankind in the solar system, the invaders had to be in possesion of interstellar spaceships. Yet in order for the invasion to develop into war in which humanity could hold its own, rather than a one-sided swift alien conquest, the invaders' military technology had to be no more than a few decades ahead of the human one. Only such a culture as the Race's - with all technology developing very slowly, and military technology frozen altogther - could fit these basic requierments needed for the basic plot structure to work. History[http://turtledove.wikia.com/index.php?title=The_Race&action=edit&section=14 {C}]' ' Pre-'''[http://turtledove.wikia.com/wiki/Race_Invasion_of_Tosev_3 '''Invasion of Tosev 3]' ' Little is known of The Race's history before the establishment of The Empire. It is known that 75,000 years ago (Earth years, EY), The Race homeworld was fully explored by a male of The Race named Sherran, who would later become a folk hero. The Race learned how to harness nuclear energy at roughly the same period. Slavery had been abolished long before the founding of The Empire, though the exact time when is unknown. At the time when the Race was divided into competing nations, these are known to have maintained a system of diplomatic relations with each other. (When needing to establish diplomatic relations with human nations, the Race would locate in old records the long-obsolete pattern of body paint proper for an Ambassador and bring it back into use.) 50,000 EY ago, the various Race nations unified into a single government headed by The Emperor. The Rabotevs were conquered 14,000 EY ago by Fleetlord Pssafalu, and the Hallessi 9,000 EY later by Fleetlord Hisstan. Due to their superior technology, The Race suffered few losses in their wars of conquest. Memorials on their conquered worlds show that Race casualties numbered in a few dozen on Halless 1, while on Rabotev 2, it was a few hundred. [http://turtledove.wikia.com/wiki/Race_Invasion_of_Tosev_3 Race Invasion of Tosev 3][http://turtledove.wikia.com/index.php?title=The_Race&action=edit&section=16 {C}]' ' In 1141 AD, The Empire sent probes to Earth (called Tosev 3 by the Race). After determining it was inhabited and technologically underdeveloped, the Race spent 800 years preparing for its conquest. The Conquest Fleet under Fleetlord Atvar arrived in Tosev 3’s solar system on December 1941, after a 20 year (human years) journey spent in cold sleep. Upon receiving radio emissions emanating from the planet, the Race was shocked that humans had rapidly developed into an industrial society, far more advanced than what the probes had shown. The Race commenced with military operations in May 1942, detonating several atom bombs above the Earth's atmosphere in an attempt to disrupt human communications. On the night of May 30, only hours after detonating the atomics, the Race's forces attacked human aircraft and ground vehicles in and around designated landing zones. Once the sites were secured, troop ships began landing and unloading ground forces. The Race simultaneously established bases on every continent except Antarctica. South America and Africa were overrun almost immediately. Landing bases in Florida, Illinois, Idaho, and New York caused widespread panic and chaos in the United States. The Race also established bases in Poland, cutting Nazi Germany off from the bulk of its forces in the Soviet Union, forcing a massive German retreat westward. Britain's air force was battered from bases in Spain and France. On the night the invasion was launched, Killercraft intercepted a thousand bomber RAF raid over Germany. The Soviet Union had to deal with enemy strongholds in the Ukrainian SSR, Outer Mongolia, and Siberia. In the early days of the fighting, only Germany was able to battle the aliens with any measure of success because its economy had been specifically geared toward war. The Race discovered that their orbital atomic detonations had little if any effect on the human militaries because they did not yet possess silicon computer chips. The free powers of Earth gained more momentum after German rail gun Dora destroyed two of the Race's ships, one of which carried the bulk of the Conquest Fleet's atomic stockpile. Samples of plutonium were appropriated by German, Soviet and Jewish rebel forces. In an attempt to reduce human resistance, Atvar ordered the use of atomic weapons on Washington, DC and Berlin, compelling both nations to fight harder and to hasten production of their own atomic weapons. The effect of the war on the psyche of the Conquest fleet soldiers was steep. Although they rapidly conquered and held about half of Earth, they regarded the invasion as a dismal failure because the whole of Earth did not fall in days. Indeed, although the Race usually had the upper hand, they took staggering (to them) losses due to attrition. Furthermore, the Race's hierarchical society was strained by their mounting losses and inability to conquer Earth. This gradually led to splits within the ranks of the Fleet officers; disgruntled frontline soldiers in Siberia unofficially led by Ussmak mutinied against their officers (an unthinkable act in their culture), demanding new army leadership that would stop the high attrition they were suffering. Impact on Humans ' The effects of the Conquest could not have been foreseen by either party - least of all the Race, given their ultra-conservative culture. Within months after the start of the Conquest, three human factions (the United States of America, the German Reich, and Russia) had salvaged plutonium, when a German railroad gun knocked down two Race starships over the Ukraine (as Race antimissile missiles were unable to destroy a large reinforced shell in mid flight) and produced their own atomic bombs. German and British fighter airplanes were re-designed with jet engines and swept wings for faster flight, in an attempt to at least partially close the gap with supersonic Race killercraft. Several other inventions (mostly military, including the bazooka) and tactics were thus developed years ahead of their times in regular history. By the 1960s (during the time of Colonization, when the Race held most of the Southern Hemisphere of Tosev 3), most cars in America ran on hydrogen. Personal computers were used by an increasing number of workers, thanks to advances in electronics from scavenged Race technology. A primitive form of the Internet was growing. Several trips had been taken aboard reusable space shuttles to space and to the Moon and Mars. The partial occupation also had a significant effect on culture and society in general. Ginger, discovered to have a narcotic effect on the Race, is widely grown and stored by various governments. '''Colonization ' In the 1962, shortly after the Race's Colonization Fleet arrived in Earth's orbit, it was attacked with nuclear weapons by an unknown nation. Twelve starships and countless colonists were destroyed. The matter was immediately investigated by the Race. The Race colonists (who included the first females of the Race to live on the planet), expecting a conquered medieval planet, were surprised and bewildered by their situation in a world inhabited by a technological advanced alien race technically at war with the Race. The colonists had extreme difficultly in adapting to these circumstances, which included military threats and economic competition from sovereign "Tosevite not-empires"; frequent revolts by humans living within the Race's territory; and the many social disruptions associated with ginger, the use of which quickly became widespread among the colonists. The social relationships between the Race of the Conquest Fleet that fought on Earth and the colonists were mildly dissatisfying. The colonists found the Race of the Conquest Fleet to be "addled," irrevocably damaged by their exposure to the "degenerate" culture of "Tosev 3", and were also widely blamed for the Race's failure to conquer the entire planet. Furthermore, the Fleetlord of the Colonization Fleet, Reffet, bickered and feuded with Atvar, blaming him for his failure to conquer the planet. The most damaging effect for Earth from the colonists was the introduction of the Race's flora and fauna to the planet, including animals such as Azwaca and Zisuili. The environmental damages caused by the alien flora and fauna included massive famines in India. Eventually hostilities between reignited between Germany and the Race, culminating in the Race-German War of 1965. This conflict caused massive destruction on both sides. The Race proved victorious, and Europe was devastated by nuclear explosions and fallout. The war also suggested the possiblity that global conquest for the Race would be impossible to accomplish. '''Interstellar Age[http://turtledove.wikia.com/index.php?title=The_Race&action=edit&section=19 {C}]' ' By the end of the twentieth century, the United States had sent a diplomat delegation the Race homeworld to recognize the nation's sovereignty. The Race hierarchy on Home were alarmed of the humans in their advance in interstellar technology and acknowledging the history that the Conquest and Colonization fleet had endured, they debated on whether to annihilate Earth with nuclear weapons for the sake of the survival of their species. As the delegation negotiate the Race in preventing nuclear annihilation, the humans have achieved faster-than-light technology allowing (human) spaceships to travel across the cosmos in short weeks in which the American spaceship Commodore Perry arrived in Home's orbit greatly alarming the Race hierarchy. By the mid-twentieth-first century the Race have utterly been technologically overshadowed by the human race. By far into this century that many of the Race held territories are still resisting its occupiers and that many of its "former" enemies, including a restored and stronger Germany, are once again a more potential threat to the Race. Wars The Race Invasion: On May 30, 1942 the Race invaded Earth with millions of soldiers with the sole purpose of conquering the planet, a planet that was already embroiled in a global war. Despite the Race's technological advantage, the strongest nations on Earth were able to fight the aliens to a standstill, and hostilities ended with the Peace of Cairo in 1944. Roughly half of the planet was under the Race's control. In 1964 the Race's Colonization Fleet came to Earth settled the areas it had conquered. The Race had already conquered two planets with a relative ease. They originally did not expect any surprises with the Earth conquest. The last probe they sent arrived during the twelfth century, 800 years before their planned invasion. The Race, being a species that exhibited slow technological advancement, didn't expect the major technological change that would sweep mankind during that period. Nor did they expect the global conflict that greeted them. By December 1941, the invasion fleet was in orbit around Earth and started reconnaissance of terrestrial cities. These were detected by human radar, but most humans thought it was some radar artifact rather than the Race's killercraft. On May 30, 1942, a large number of nuclear devices were sent into the earth atmosphere so that an EMP would cripple Tosevite electronics, but as humans still used vacuum tubes, EMP was less effective than the Race had hoped. After this, the Race launched the actual invasion of Earth. Africa was quickly conquered by the Race because of the desert climate and lack of industrial capacity. As much of the continent had been divided up by European powers, the inhabitants of Africa were often willing allies of the Race. The Race invaded Asia along with the rest of the planet in May 1942 with multiple landings in China, India, outer Mongolia, and Siberia. The Lizards quickly secured the landing sites and rapidly advanced against the primary human powers opposing them. They overran mainland China in the summer of 1942 destroying much of the Japanese invasion force although pockets of Japanese troops resisted fanatically wrecking cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Some Chinese who had been victims of rape and other atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army initially greeted the Lizards as liberators. However, the main Chinese factions including the Kuomintang and the Mao Tse-Tung's Communists soon rallied their forces to wage large scale guerilla warfare against the Race, working with the other human powers and even the Japanese, many of whom became guerillas themselves in China after the destruction of their armies. Despite defeats on the mainland and heavy air attacks on the Home Islands, Japan had the advantage of not suffering direct invasion making it unique among the Big Five along with Britain in the early stages of the invasion. After the destruction of Berlin and Washington, DC with atomic weapons, Japan began a program to build an atomic bomb to use against the Lizards in China, and turn the tide of the war on Asian mainland. However, Atvar learned of the Japanese program after rescuing a downed killercraft pilot Teerts who informed him that the Japanese nuclear effort was centered in Tokyo where he had been forced to divulge secrets under torture. Atvar destroyed the Japanese capital in retaliation, ending the Japanese nuclear program. Had the Japanese been more careful with Teerts they may have been able develop the bomb and gain recognition as a great power at the Cairo Conference, keeping China and Korea for themselves. This recognition would wait until Japanese developed the bomb in 1964 and China would remain under the Race's rule indefinitely. Siberia was also the site of heavy fighting with the Race occupying pockets of Soviet territory and cutting the trans-Siberian railroad in at least one place. The Race also advanced on Vladivostok through Manchuria after the fall of Harbin in late 1942 although it is unclear how far they get. The Soviets resorted to conventional and guerrilla tactics to fight the invaders, taking advantage of the extreme cold to throw the Lizards off balance. The tide began to turn in the winter of 1943-44 when a Lizard base outside Tomsk, whose inhabitants had suffered from extreme cold, demoralization, and ginger addiction, mutinied and surrendered to the Soviet forces. The Soviets benefited from large amounts of Lizard equipment recovered from the base some of which was traded to the Americans for nuclear assistance. Soviet forces began retaking Siberian territory after the mutiny and attempted to re-establish the trans-Siberian railway. The Race was forced to return all Soviet territory it occupied in Asia under the terms of the Cairo Conference. British and Indian forces also resisted the Lizards in India although Britain did not have the resources to develop nuclear weapons nor transport them to its colony which was irretrievable by the end of the war. Although the British still held Bombay in early 1944, the Race did not agree to a ceasefire with the British Empire outside Britain and subsequently occupied the British remnants after making peace with the main human powers. Mohandas Gandhi organized a passive resistance campaign against the Race. As the Race did elsewhere across the planet before their descent into the landmasses, they exploded nuclear devices in the atmosphere above areas that were radio communication centers. One such target was the city of Chicago, Illinois, where scientists were working on a project to build an atomic bomb at the University of Chicago. In a few days, the Race had landed massive forces on the North American continent, splitting the United States in half along the Mississippi River, with heavy concentrations in Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, lower Illinois and Indiana, neutralizing many of the United States Army forces arrayed across the country, forcing the federal government to call up hundreds of thousands of volunteers. With barely any training to speak of, the new US Army went into battle to attempt to head off the Race's drive on Chicago, with the intention of sealing the western United States from the east. For the next two years, the US Army and the Race fought through the South Side of Chicago until the United States was driven to within a few miles from Lake Michigan--at which point, the USA detonated its first "explosive-metal device" (atomic bomb), annihilating the Race's spearhead and preserving the last corridor between east and west. Elsewhere, the Race was advancing. It pushed as far west as the outskirts of Denver, Colorado (the location of America's atomic pile, a fact unknown to the Race), and as far east as Buffalo. It also reached central Florida from its beachhead in the southern part of the peninsula. Determined to bring the US government to its knees, the Race had already detonated a nuclear weapon over Washington, DC; most of the federal government had already evacuated to various secret locations. More nuclear weapons destroyed Pearl Harbor and Seattle--killing Vice President Henry Wallce. When Franklin D. Roosevelt died suddenly in early 1944, his Secretary of State, Cordell Hull -- now the new President of the USA -- initiated peace negotations as the remaining great powers did the same, meeting the Race's leader, Fleetlord Atvar, in Cairo, Egypt. The Race never made a major effort against Canada, viewing that country as a frozen wasteland not unlike Siberia. As a consequence, the United States was able to utilize the relatively-unscathed transportation network to its advantage, shuttling forces and supplies back and forth to the various fronts. In contrast to Canada, though, the Race fully occupied Mexico within a few months of landfall, and installed a permanent presence there after the Peace of Cairo. As the United States had demonstrated its nuclear capacity and its ability to produce more weapons, it remained fully-independent, along with Germany, the Soviet Union, Japan, and Britain (the latter two did not have nuclear weapons, but were never successfully occupied). South America quickly fell under Race control due to the hot weather and low military capacity of the inhabitants. The Race invaded Europe on multiple fronts in May 1942, landing in southern France, Italy, Poland, and Ukraine. German and Soviet forces suffered serious defeats and much of the German army in the western Soviet Union was cut-off, and either fended for themselves or perished. Southern France was overrun as was Spain. Italy surrendered after a few months of fighting. The air forces of all the major powers were decimated with the British thousand bomber raid over Cologne being intercepted and almost completely destroyed by the Race in the first night of fighting. The German forces fared best against the Race in the initial months of the invasion, scoring a few successes through superior tactics and espionage. The German heavy artillary battery Dora destroyed two Lizard starships in the Ukraine while German commandoes led by Otto Skorzeny rescued Benito Mussolini in Italy in the first of several important missions. Despite the nuclear destruction of Berlin in early summer 1942 in retaliation for these successes, Germany continued to fanatically resist the Race on all fronts. The Germans agreed to a cease fire with the Soviet Union and the two powers staged a joint mission to recover plutonium from one of the destroyed Lizard starships in Ukraine which they split among themselves. The Jews and Catholics of German-occupied Poland revolted against the Germans due to the massacres of Jews and brutal Nazi oppression, seeing the Race as the lesser of two evils. The human partisans allowed the Race to take Warsaw. Jewish partisans led by Mordechai Anielewicz captured German major Heinrich Jäger as he traveled across Poland with the German half of the plutonium, taking half of it and giving it to the Americans via the British. The Big Five held conferences in London throughout the war despite the obvious tensions felt by former enemies. The chief concern among all the powers was the Race's atomic weapons and the human efforts to build their own. The Soviets were the first to build and detonate a nuclear bomb based on their large share of nuclear material. The bomb was deployed against the Race's drive on Moscow, decimating a Lizard army outside the city of Kaluga in the spring of 1943. That same year, the Germans drove the Lizards from Split, Croatia and stalled the Lizard advances in eastern France and Poland around the same time. Fleetlord Atvar learned from these initial setbacks and attempted to invade Britain in the summer 1943. Prime minister Winston Churchill unleashed mustard gas on the invaders, a weapon that was incomprehensible to the Race. The invasion of Britain was stopped outside London, with the Race taking substantial casualties. The Race withdrew with Britain unconquered. In response, the Germans began using contact nerve gas in their battles with the Race. The Lizards attempted to overrun Germany by invading from east and west, but this invasion was stopped when the first German atomic bomb was detonated outside Breslau, vaporizing at most a Lizard army. The Race destroyed Munich in retaliation. Now back on the offensive, the Germans reinvaded Poland in 1944 but avoided cities such as Lodz with large Jewish populations since the well-armed Jews were now a force to be reckoned with. The Germans also destroyed Race-held Rome when Pope Pius XII called for collaboration with the Lizards. In response, the Race destroyed Hamburg. The Soviets built their first bomb with entirely original materials in the summer of 1944 and used it to destroy a Lizard army in Saratov. Despite the destruction of Magnitogorsk in retaliation, the Soviets convinced the Race to hold the Cairo Conference in which the USA, Germany, and the Soviet Union were recognized as fully sovereign and equal to the Race on Tosev III. The Race returned Soviet territory and territory claimed by Germany including Italy but kept Poland at the request of most of the human powers as a buffer between the Germans and Soviets. The Middle East fell despite attempts by the British to defend it and the destruction of Alexandria by a German atomic bomb. Atvar established the Race's capital city in the Middle Eastern city of Cairo. The Race had tremendous difficulty administering the Tosevites of the region, especially those who practice Islam. With China and India, it was among the most resistant of all the Race's areas throughout Tosev 3, and, unlike China and India, it strongly resisted the introduction of the Race's cult of emperor-worship. The Race's occupation of the Middle East had deleterious effects on humanity's oil supplies, prompting the development of alcohol- and hydrogen-based internal combustion. The latter was based on the Race's technology. Attracted to the climate and the sparse Tosevite population, the Race was very interested in colonizing Australia. Atvar used two explosive-metal bombs to destroy the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, breaking what had been costly Australian resistance. After these bombings, the last of Australia's defenses broke down, and the Conquest Fleet easily overran the island continent. When the Colonization Fleet arrived in 1962, Australia was heavily settled by Lizard colonists. The Race-German War of 1965 was a brief and costly war fought between Germany and several of its allies and the Race in 1965. It ended in a Race victory, but also gave the Race cause for concern as it saw how greatly improved German weaponry had become since the World War II vintage weapons it had faced when the Conquest Fleet first landed on Tosev 3 twenty years earlier. At the Peace of Cairo conference, Atvar agreed to withdraw from most of the Race's European territories but refused to leave Poland. German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop demanded that Poland be ceded to the Greater German Reich, claiming that Adolf Hitler had not authorized him to sign any agreement that did not include this and threatening to walk out of the conference if his demand was not met. This alienated not only the Race but the Soviet Union, which was prepared to cede its own claim to Poland to the Race but not to Germany, and other Tosevite not-empires, who feared that unreasonable German ultimata would leave Atvar less willing to make the concessions they'd already won from him and expected to continue to win. Ribbentrop ultimately backed down when Atvar announced a new, more aggressive military policy: That he would respond to signs of human aggression by overwhelmingly liberal use of atomic bombs. After this, the Race's claim to Poland was recognized by all the major human powers, including Germany. This was the status quo for the next two decades. The Soviet Union respected the Race's claim to Poland, as it provided a buffer between the Soviet Union and Germany; Vyacheslav Molotov was secretly delighted to have them there. In Germany, the Race's presence was only tolerated. Hitler hated it, as did his successor, Heinrich Himmler. Himmler was nonetheless canny enough to bide his time until 1964, when he convinced himself (based more on his ideological beliefs than on any concrete fact) that Germany could take Poland from the Race with minimal consequences to Germany. Although self-assured, Himmler nonetheless proposed an alliance to Soviet leader Vyacheslav Molotov, harkening back to the division of Poland in 1939. Molotov, remembering full well how Germany used Poland as a launching pad for the invasion of the USSR, and having a more realistic understanding of the Race's military power, declined. Information of this meeting came to the Race's attention. Moreover, Race forces in Poland noted an increase in German troop activity along the Reich's border. The Race's amabassador in Germany, Veffani, and his aid, Felless, warned Himmler not to pursue such provocations. Himmler flatly denied any intention of launching a war. Himmler's sudden death seemed to bring the crisis to a close. However, he was succeeded by Ernst Kaltenbrunner in 1965. Kaltenbrunner, a fire-breathing Nazi idealogue, launched a sudden, unprovoked invasion of Poland shortly after taking office. German forces were joined by Romanian, Hungarian, and Slovakian forces. But the Soviet Union and the United States, which had been invited to join in the war and declined, maintained policies of strict neutrality, and even Germany's ally Britain wisely offered diplomatic support but no military aid. German forces were badly outnumbered by Conquest Fleet veterans led by Atvar and allied with Polish and Jewish militias, which made up the majority of the Race's infantry on the Polish front. German forces did not get very far into Poland before faltering, and a Race counteroffensive into Germany followed their repulsion from Poland; but the Germans did demonstrate some considerable capabilities: They destroyed nearly every major Polish city with nuclear missles as well as other Race-held cities across the globe, particularly Australia and the Middle East (though the Race turned Germany into a nuclear wasteland); and their tanks proved capable of fighting Lizard landcruisers on a one-on-one basis, whereas twenty years earlier the Race had maintained a 5:1 kill ratio in armored combat. The Race attempted to open a secondary front by invading southern France from Spain. This invasion was soundly defeated. The Reich Rocket Force's launchpads were destroyed, so German space shuttles could not be reinforced. However, plenty had already been in orbit when the war started, and these battled starships of the Conquest and Colonization Fleets, with very limited success. The battles in orbit prevented neutral space-faring nations from launching new missions as well. After four weeks, it seems that the German space fleet was all but destroyed. In the asteroid belt, a long-range nuclear missile destroyed the [http://turtledove.wikia.com/wiki/Hermann_Goering_(Spaceship) Hermann Goering]. At one point in the war, Romania attempted to make a separate peace with the Race. Germany punished it by detonating an atomic bomb over Bucharest, and afterward Romania as well as Hungary and Slovakia loudly proclaimed their continued loyalty to the Reich until the very end. Kaltenbrunner and many other senior Wehrmact, SS, and Nazi Party officials were killed in the war, leaving General Walter Dornberger as the senior living German official. He assumed the Chancellorship and immediately instructed Ambassador Paul Schmidt to ask Soviet General-Secretary Vyacheslav Molotov to mediate a peace agreement. Schmidt and his Race counterpart, Queek, negotiated an agreement in the Kremlin. Though Queek opened negotiations by demanding an unconditional surrender, Schmidt reminded the Race that Germany was still able to inflict damage on the Race, thanks primarily to their fleet of nuclear submarines, which had proved extraordinarily difficult for the Race to detect and harder still to destroy. Also, Molotov pressured Queek into at least guaranteeing continued German sovereignty, for fear of the Race developing too advantageous a position relative to the Soviet Union. Accordingly, a negotiated peace settlement was reached. Thus ended the war as well as Atvar's last significant military action as Fleetlord of the Conquest Fleet. The terms to which Germany was forced to submit were harsh. Germany would not be allowed to travel into space and would also not be allowed to possess nuclear weapons. In addition, France was to be yielded as a territorial concession and a Fourth Republic was proclaimed there. However, as it had after World War I, Germany found ways of subverting these restrictions; and like the Entente fifty years before it, the Race lost the will to enforce them. Within thirty years Germany was once again a space-faring country and a threat to the Race. The demonstration of the Race's military might reminded Tosevite not-empires that, though they had made some gains since the Peace of Cairo, the Race was still the world's single strongest power. It was this reminder which would prompt US President Earl Warren to accept punitive measures from the Race after it discovered his role in the destruction of twelve ships of the Colonization Fleet, because he knew the US would not survive a similar war if he refused. The elimination of Germany as a global power also forced a realignment of human states diplomatically. Before the war, a delicate balance had been maintained. Everyone knew that the Race was stronger than either Germany, the United States, or the Soviet Union, but no one knew whether it was stronger than all three; and acting in concert, the human powers were able to negotiate with the Race from a position of strength. With one of the three eliminated, the balance shifted much more in the Race's direction, and the United States and Soviet Union as well as other independent nations began cooperating much more closely. In 1966, when it looked like a war between the United States and the Race was likely, Molotov declared that the Soviet Union would ally with the United States in such a war (whereas it had been neutral in the Race-German War) rather than risk becoming the only powerful human nation on a Race-dominated planet. Tremendous chaos throughout Germany and Poland followed the war, and much of the population was displaced. Many families were separated, and some individuals even found themselves enslaved. Mordechai Anielewicz lost track of the atomic bomb he'd captured from Otto Skorzeny over twenty years before; the weapon fell into the hands of a group of violent Jewish fundamentalists. They attempted to detonate it inside Germany but found that it was no longer operational. Shorn of its principal ally and fearful of Soviet dominance, Finland invited the Race to set up a military base in its territory, the first north of the Baltic. Britain lost its most powerful friend and permanently fell behind in terms of international prestige. Taken with the development of an alliance with the French Fourth Republic and of course the defeat of the Reich itself, these developments allowed the Race to take a position as the dominant power in Europe, with only the isolated Soviet Union as a rival. Though a great victory for the Race, the victory rang somewhat hollow as its cost and the casualties suffered, both military and civilian, also served as a reminder that the subjugation of all of Tosev 3 would be an extraordinarily difficult and costly task, one which might even prove impossible. Radiation resulting from the German-Race nuclear exchange spread to neutral countries, severely disrupting civilian life for decades to come. Category:Enemy Faction Category:Allied Faction